Composition Emphasis
Are you a musician who wants to study music composition? SPU's Music degree with an emphasis in Composition offers a rich and rigorous education in music.
Benefits
Students in the Composition Emphasis, through a series of skill-building exercises and experience with larger and larger forms, whether in class or in private instruction, are prepared for a rich future in music. Students can enter careers such as professional composition, film scoring, and arranging, as well as any careers involving decoding complex symbol systems, creativity, craftsmanship, or discipline.
Major Courses and Degree Requirements
As a Music major with a Composition emphasis, you will follow an integrative approach to advanced musicianship. You will study music theory, aural skills, and music styles and history from early Middle Ages to the 21st century. In addition, you will study music composition, technology, instrumentation, and orchestration. You will have the opportunity to reflect on the integration of music and faith, as well as your sense of vocation, as you study in depth such great works as Bach's "St. Matthew Passion," Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis," Brahms' "German Requiem," and Mahler's "Resurrection Symphony."
The minimum total credits required for a major emphasis is 124 quarter credits. The minimum total credits required for degree is 180 quarter credits.
View the major courses and degree requirements.
Admission to the Major
You may apply to the Music major (PDF) when you have completed your freshman year at SPU. To be admitted to the major, you must have earned a 3.0 overall GPA and have decided upon your area of emphasis. Once admitted, you are required to maintain a 2.8 minimum GPA.
Career Opportunities
- Arranger/Composer
- Choral Director
- Church Musician
- Composer
- Conductor
- Film Scorer
- Music Director
- Music Librarian
- Music Professor
- Music Teacher
- Musicologist
- Sound Engineer
Faculty Contact
Eric Hanson
Professor of Music; Director of Symphony Orchestra; Director of Composition
Email: ehanson@spu.eduPhone: 206-281-2949
Office: Crawford 101
An Up-and-coming Composer
“Music is emotion, whether subconscious or explicit, dynamic or textural, inspirational or sobering, music has amazing rhetorical power.”
Daniel Caldwell ’12
B.A. in Music: Composition Emphasis
Explore Daniel's career since his graduation from SPU.
Why I Teach at SPU
Eric Hanson, Chair of Instrumental Music and Director of Symphony Orchestra
"I teach at Seattle Pacific University because I cannot not teach. I have a burning desire to share with students the rich corpus of great music, to empower them to realize their creative potential."